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Published 15 November 2007Foodstuffs Auckland Ltd will take its case for a Wairau Rd supermarket back to North Shore City Council next week, when it seeks a new resource consent for the Pak ‘N’ Save supermarket which was ordered to be closed in 2005, just before completion.

The joint hearing by Shore & Auckland Regional Council commissioners opens on Monday and is set down for 5 days.

Foodstuffs has been trying to get a supermarket on its Wairau Rd property for 17 years and got consent to build it in October 2004, only to have it ordered shut by High Court judge David Baragwanath on what I regarded as radically spurious reasoning.

Justice Baragwanath’s essential point was that you can’t add to congestion by creating a development before infrastructure is in place, even though you have no control over the infrastructure provider and so can’t force it to provide what the area would need.

My argument was that this encouraged the infrastructure provider to be inactive rather than proactive, or to be unreasonably selective.

While the infrastructure provider, Transit NZ, complained about the effect of supermarket traffic on the Northcote intersection with the Northern Motorway, it was supermarket competitor Progressive Enterprises Ltd, now owned by Woolworths Ltd of Australia, that took the fight to court.

Progressive, backing the Northcote Mainstreet Business Association, sought judicial review of the non-notified consent commissioners granted Foodstuffs, and got it overturned in June 2005.

Foodstuffs Auckland property development general manager Murray Jordan said more than 1000 people had either made submissions or signed a petition in favour of the supermarket. “That compares with just 5 submissions opposing it,” he said.

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Published 2 November 2007Symphony Projects Ltd has put its leasehold highrise apartment site in the Albany City Centre on the market, with consent for 503 units in place and a joint venture as a second sale option.

After Rick Martin of Cornerstone Group Ltd bought the freehold on 44ha from Neil Developments Ltd for $250 million at the end of 2004, Symphony bought the perpetual leasehold interest. Buyers of units in subsequent developments acquire sublease interests.

The 1.6ha site, designated A2 on the Albany City Centre plan, is at a high point beside the Northern Motorway, at 80 Don McKinnon Drive. It’s zoned business 11C – residential focus.

The resource consent is for 2 highrise towers, one of 23 levels and the other of 29, on a 9-level podium. The towers will contain 398 apartments, the podium 105. Consent has also been granted for 920 parking spaces.

The design provides for a range of living styles – courtyard as well as podium & tower – in a range from 1-4 bedrooms. It also includes a swimming pool, fitness centre, residential club, library, meeting room and a courtyard with cafés & shops.

The proposition for a buyer of the leasehold on the site is:

a 21-year lease paying ground rent of 6.25% of freehold market value (assessed at the highest & best use of undeveloped land), with a 7-yearly review to marketa second 35-year term on the same ground rent and with the same rent reviewsturning into a lease in perpetuity.

The whole Albany City development area – including existing developments such as the North Harbour Stadium, Albany Mega Centre bulk retail area and Westfield NZ Ltd’s new shopping centre – contains 143ha in a triangle between State Highway 17, the Northern Motorway & Oteha Valley Rd.

When the whole area is developed, projections are for a population of 10,000 and a workforce of 15,000.

A second apartment development, The Foundry, already being marketed by Platypus (NZ) Ltd (Chris Minty) is also for 500 apartments, in 3 stages. It will be built on the D1 block beside the Albany Lakes reserve and also next to a proposed Woolworths supermarket. Platypus has consent for the 146-unit stage 1 and has unconditional agreements on about half. The supermarket is expected to be built in the next 12 months.

I’ll add some more detail about the Albany City Centre projects at the weekend.

Other details: Mr Martin heads Cornerstone Group Ltd, which has the freehold of 44ha at the Albany Town Centre on the market and is also planning a 465ha development at Waimauku, including a new town.

The cut & fill for the Silverstone Business Park will involve topping a small hill and using the soil to fill a gully. The Silverstone business park is the only part of the Rodney District Council’s Silverdale North business zone not now in the hands of Fulton Hogan Ltd.

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Published 12 October 2007A group of Waikato investors has sold their Kea development at Albany after 6 years.

Albany, 6 Piermark Drive, Unit C, 708m&sup2; of office & warehouse, sold for $1.3 million on behalf of Garrison Properties Ltd to an owner occupier; the property is one of many in the North Harbour industrial estate developed by Dave McAlpine’s Kea Property Development Group Ltd (sales, Elliott Molesworth, Len Storck & Richard Kirke, CB Richard Ellis, North Auckland).

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Published 10 October 2007Earthworks are nearly finished for the ING Property Trust’s bulk retail development along Oteha Valley Rd from the Northern Motorway & bus station at Albany, and the trust has accepted a development agreement from Symphony Projects Management Ltd.

Trust management company general manager Peter Mence said yesterday construction had started on the first stage, for a 10,000m&sup2; Mitre 10 Mega store as anchor tenant. The trust has secured lease commitments from 3 other national tenants. These leases account for 61% of the total floor area and negotiations are in progress for the rest of the development.

Key areas will be completed in October 2008 so Mitre 10 can start trading before Christmas 2008, and overall completion is programmed for February 2009.

The trust bought the leasehold development site in May for $24.44 million and entered a joint venture for 3-5 years with the freehold owners, headed by Symphony Group Ltd, which also owns 50% of the trust management company.

Under the development agreement, the projected profit from each of the developments will be distributed 30% to the trust & 70% to Symphony Projects. The projected profit from this development is $5.9 million, of which the trust will receive $1.77 million. Mr Mence said Jones Lang LaSalle had valued the development "as if complete" at $61.5 million, showing an initial yield of 8.25% and a projected 9.41% internal rate of return.

Porirua purchase In a separate transaction, the trust has negotiated the off-market acquisition of 10 Tutu Place, Porirua, for $3.7 million. The site adjoins the trust’s existing properties in the Porirua Mega Centre and is fully leased to 3 tenants, with a weighted average lease term of 4.8 years. Mr Mence said the site will allow increased flexibility in the proposed redevelopment of the Spotlight & Placemakers buildings.

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The Bob Dey Property website is primarily about commercial & development property in Auckland, policies & strategies that impact on the sector, listed property securities and wider economic influences. It examines infrastructure, access & urban design issues, and presents ideas from around the world. The emphasis is on appropriate depth & context.